AWS cuts hundreds of jobs in latest round of tech layoffs

• RELATED: GeekWire’s Layoff Tracker keeps tabs on workforce reductions at Seattle and Pacific Northwest tech companies and engineering centers.

Microsoft’s cybersecurity culture is “inadequate” and “requires an overhaul,” according to a new report by the Cyber Safety Review Board that criticizes the tech giant over a 2023 Chinese hacking incident. The report calls on Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the company’s board to take stronger action and hold senior leaders accountable. Read more. 

In other news from the Redmond tech giant, Microsoft and Quantinuum say they’ve demonstrated a quantum computing system that significantly reduces the error rate for data processing, calling it a “major achievement for the entire quantum ecosystem.” Read more.

Seattle-based biotech company ProfoundBio, which is developing drugs to treat ovarian and endometrial cancers, will be acquired by publicly traded Danish drugmaker Genmab in a $1.8 billion all-cash deal. Read more.

It’s AI vs. AI, with the future of democracy at stake. TrueMedia.org, the nonprofit led by Seattle-area computer scientist Oren Etzioni and backed by Uber co-founder Garrett Camp, released its AI-powered deepfake detector for journalists and fact-checkers, aiming to help debunk disinformation fueled by fake content in advance of this year’s elections. Read more.

Tech Moves: F5 taps new CTO and HR chief; Adaptive Biotechnologies names new CFO; Techstars Seattle leaders depart; and more key personnel changes. 

There’s a lot of hype around AI, acknowledges Yifan Zhang (above), but the ultimate outcome could be to make work “more strategic versus more execution oriented.” That’s one of the takeaways from the managing director of the AI2 Incubator on a new episode of the Shift AI Podcast with Boaz Ashkenazy. Read more and listen here.

Seattle-area ag-tech startup Pollen Systems raised $2.4 million for its AI-powered crop management technology. The company hired nine new employees and is looking to expand to 10 new countries this year. Read more. 

Modulus Therapeutics, a startup spun out of Seattle’s AI2 Incubator, sold its cell therapy platform assets to Boston biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks. Read more.

Hot Links:

• FTC Chair Lina Khan appeared on “The Daily Show” to discuss what her agency does, how it combats monopoly behavior, why she sued Amazon, and more. (YouTube)

• Are the Bellingham area and Northwest Washington state a “dead zone for tech startups” or does the definition of tech startup need to change? (Cascadia Daily News, subscription required; see columnist Frank Catalano’s Facebook post for more. )

• Jeff Bezos reportedly paid $90 million for another mansion in the Miami-area enclave where he lives, to stay in while he tears down his other houses. (Bloomberg)

• TikTok owner ByteDance is grabbing more office space in Bellevue. (Puget Sound Business Journal)

• Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson is asking legislative staff to come into the office four days per week, citing productivity benefits and “cohesiveness.” (Hannah Krieg)